Social Media Addiction – are our phones taking over our lives?

It isn’t that long ago that hardly anybody had a mobile phone, never mind anything labeled as ‘smart’, and social media was a term yet to be invented too. Try explaining either of those things to someone born in the twenty-first century and see what fun you have.

Life today is difficult for many to imagine without a way to connect instantly with the world by phone or internet, and to peep into the lives of friends, family and strangers alike through the popular social media platforms.

But is this really a healthy way to live, or is the need to always feel ‘in the loop’ dominating normal life?

Ways we use a Smartphone

We make calls, of course, then there’s texting – with or without the aid of voice recognition technology, perhaps you check the weather, take a picture (or five) or find the inbuilt calculator handy when shopping?

These are all fairly every day, almost mundane things to do. But when it comes to using the phone to access online social media sites it’s a different story altogether. This is where the scary and serious issue of addiction can creep up and take over so easily.

Here are some typical signs that suggest your phone habits are out of control

You have calluses on fingers from repetitive tapping on the screen.

Concerned family or friends suggest you give up using the phone for Lent.

You often refresh the page looking for fresh content when using social media apps.

Checking sites before sleeping, and if you wake in the night – which you do often – is the only way you can fall back to sleep again.

You think it’s fine to check social media on the phone when out socially with others.

Friends and romantic partners avoid going out with you socially.

You cannot even start to eat until pictures of your food have been artfully taken and shared online.

You feel resentful or annoyed when a child you are responsible for taking your attention from the phone.

It’s easier to convey feelings through emojis and hopes folk figure out what you mean than speak to them face to face.

You take your phone into the toilet in case you miss something.

The notification alerts from social media sites wake you up constantly through the night and generally trigger you to open and read them.

Society’s influence

This is a wired and connected world and the assumption that everyone should be contactable 24/7 is not unusual. The pressure to respond instantly to texts or social media messages is intense, and can quickly become a kind of learned behavior.

It is possible to break out of this trap, and to use your phone in a way that adds something positive to your life – as it can – rather than stifling meaningful communication, damaging relationships and making you sleep-poor.

This, of course, applies to your professional life as well. As I’m sure you are already aware, many businesses have excelled over the past decade or so because of their inclusion and activity within these social media, including companies like Buzzfeed and Ladbible.

Good observation, social media is taking over our lives every passing day. It has become increasingly difficult to see people without their mobile phones. It seems we want to live our lives Big Boss style where people can see and know what we do 24 / 7. We share what we eat, where we went, how we are feeling, etc without realizing that the whole world is not really interested in it. Only our near and dear ones are concern about us and we can easily share our experiences and feelings with them directly face to face without having to go online.

You have shared a wonderful post. Social media has certainly become very popular within the last 5 years. Nobody knew that it could make such a huge impact on our lives. It has allowed business houses to interact with its audiences directly and take their feedback. They can now market their product and services to niche audience which will give higher ROI.

Apart from the people sleep almost everyone else is using phones and waiting the time in playing games and social network sites and getting addicted to the mobile phone. The smartphone has changed our life ins some way but addiction level has increased a lot. The internet has taken our live variable times

Robin Khokhar

Hi, I am Robin from the Holy City Amritsar of India who runs this blog. I love sharing and writing content. Some of the other things that I like most doing except blogging is traveling and watching Movies.More…